The number of urban foxes could be nearly five times as high now as it was in the 1990s, according to one report.

The Sunday Times has reported that a study by scientists from Brighton and Reading Universities estimates that the number of foxes in UK towns and cities has reached 150,000, compared to just 33,000 recorded in the 1990s.

Biologist Dawn Scott, of Brighton University, and behavioural zoologist Phil Baker, of Reading University, asked members of the public across the country to report fox sightings in July and August from 2013-15.

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The researchers also tagged foxes with transmitters, to monitor group sizes and the extent of their territories.

According to The Sunday Times, the researchers have said the figures in their unpublished study are still an estimate, but that after Bournemouth the highest concentration is in London, with 18 foxes per square kilometre.